


A Woman Like That

by highflyer101



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Civil War, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5947392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highflyer101/pseuds/highflyer101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susannah is young and fit, but she still doesn't work in the fields for reasons people don't dare to speak aloud. Instead, she has the coveted position of cleaning the main house. Everyone either glowers at her in envy or frowns in pity when the subject comes up. All Mama will say is that Susannah is the master's favorite, and that it's not worth meddling with her - "You can't never trust a woman like that," she warns.</p><p>* * * * * *<br/>Character study of Aurelia, because she's important and I love her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Woman Like That

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! Busy day for me, lol... Just had to write something about Aurelia, who tragically does not feature in any of the stories posted so far. I hope I do her character and her story justice, since it's such an important one to tell. 
> 
> It's in the tags/ratings, but just to be sure: trigger warning for (off-screen but heavily implied) rape.

Aurelia's first memory is of her father. He is standing in a field that stretches on as far as the eye can see, and he is clutching her to his chest like she is precious. "Aurelia," he whispers. "My golden baby girl." She's four, and it's her job to be carrying drinking water to the older slaves, but he's interrupted her duties for a moment because she's his _child_ and she's _beautiful._ The sun hangs low in the sky above them, but, for the moment, Aurelia is convinced that she is the center of her daddy's whole universe. Then -

"Hey! You there! Get back to work!" The white man has caught them, and Aurelia is lowered to the ground as her father dutifully returns to his work. He loves her, she knows, even in her child's mind. There's just no point in fighting the master for the love of a child; it'll only backfire anyway.

In Aurelia's next memory, her father is already gone.

* * * * * * *

Aurelia has many mothers. There's the woman who gave birth to her, who bore her as an infant on her back as she tilled the fields. Then there's the other women laborers, who suck their teeth and scold her if she hollers too much at night. There's also the older, weaker women, who tend to the in-between children (the ones too old to be strapped to their parents' backs as they work, but too young to be doing much of anything themselves) and take care of the big house.

There's one woman, Susannah, who doesn't really fit into any of these categories. She's young and fit, but she still doesn't work in the fields for reasons people don't dare to speak aloud. Instead, she has the coveted position of cleaning the main house. Everyone either glowers at her in envy or frowns in pity when the subject comes up. All Mama (Aurelia's birth mother) will say is that Susannah is the master's favorite, and that it's not worth meddling with her - "You can't never trust a woman like that," she warns.

Sometimes, Aurelia thinks she has it all sorted out: Susannah's a traitor, somehow, because she spends her time with the white folk and (Aurelia learns what this really means later) shares the master's bed on occasion. All this seems reason enough to shun her. But then she wakes up one night, and she hears hushed voices, and it stops making sense.

"You poor child," Mama is crooning. "You hush now, we'll see that it all comes right." Another woman - Susannah, it must be - sobs.

"What am I gon' do?" Susannah pleads. "What am I gon' do?"

Mama doesn't have an answer.

* * * * * * *

Aurelia is ten when Susannah's baby is born. It comes out looking white as rice, but no one's allowed to say anything about it. The master comes down once, takes a hard look at it, and says it should be named James. He doesn't bother to cover his tracks; he doesn't have to. No one's going to take him to jail for impregnating his own property, certainly not any of his own slaves.

As with any other woman, Susannah is allowed a minimal amount of time off before returning to work. Mama is old enough to have stopped working the fields, and she fusses over James in his early days while his mother lies in bed, staring into space. It's clear that Susannah loves her child, like any other woman, but it's also clear that his birth broke her in some way. She goes through life blankly now, perhaps because she can no longer deny her ordeal; she can't pretend that her encounters with the master are only bad dreams. At the time, Aurelia is too young to understand why that's so horrible, but she will, one day.

"Mama, why don't Susannah do that herself?" Aurelia asks one night, as Mama burps baby James.

"Hush, Aurelia," she snaps. "Ain't none of your business, and I can do it well enough, too, can't I?"

"Yes, Mama," Aurelia murmurs. She turns to study Susannah, and is surprised to find her gazing longingly at a man, Ezekiel, playing with his son. Stupidly, Aurelia blurts, "Are you sad about James' daddy, then?"

Thankfully, Mama isn't listening, or Aurelia would be getting a real earful about manners. Instead, she's only faced with Susannah's thoughtful, almost wistful expression. Susannah is undeniably beautiful, and Aurelia can't help but think she looks even more beautiful like this: engaged and curious about a subject, not empty like she's been lately.

"Yeah, s'pose I am," she says eventually.

"Well, I don't have a daddy, and I turned out fine," Aurelia tries to reassure her. (She is surprised by the flashes of her father's face that play through her head when she talks about him. She hasn't thought about him in years, really, ever since she left.)

"Your daddy _wanted_ you, though," Susannah counters. "Your mama, too."

"You mean you don't want James?" Aurelia gasps. Susannah shrugs.

"Don't want no baby born in this life." Unlike most adults, she's honest, and Aurelia likes that, really. She just don't like the truth very much.

"Maybe you get free," she suggests.

"Maybe pigs is gonna start flyin'," Susannah scoffs dismissively. It stings a little to be brushed off like that. It stings more to know she's right.

* * * * * * *

When Aurelia turns fifteen, she starts working in the big house, instead of the field. Mama died the year before, but she knows she would be worried if she knew the master was going to be hanging around her baby all day. As it is, Susannah purses her lips and shows her how to do the white folk's laundry properly, how to move through the house without being seen, how to bite her tongue when the masters' kids start yelling about the "Negroes" in the house. Her most important lesson, though, isn't the typical sort.

"He ever come for you, you don't look him in the eye, you hear me?" she instructs under her voice after the master passes by them one day. "You look down, and you say 'Yessir' no matter what he say, and it won't hurt so much, understand?"

"Yes, Susannah, yes," Aurelia nods, filing this information away. She doesn't understand, not really, but she knows enough to know that it's important she listens.

"Good." Susannah hesitates. "You'll be alright, girl," she adds. Aurelia remembers the night Mama told Susannah the same thing, and prays things go differently this time.

* * * * * * *

It's two years later when the war starts. It's also two years later when the master starts looking at Aurelia differently, and Susannah yanks her away from the others one night.

"You been listenin' to the white folk?" she whispers. Aurelia nods. As housekeepers, they get information on the war first, mainly from hearing the master and his family discuss it. And somehow, Aurelia knows what piece of information Susannah wants to talk about before she even begins.

"You go to the Union army," she continues. "You call yourself _contraband,_ and you good as free. You gotta go, you hear?" She doesn't let Aurelia protest. "You don't go, he gon' do you just like he did me. You want that?" Aurelia glances at James, who is seven now, about to start work in the field. She feels herself shaking her head without even thinking about it. "Then you run," Susannah concludes.

"They'll catch me," she murmurs.

"They won't if you go fast," Susannah insists.

And they don't.

* * * * * * *

One more year and Aurelia's whole body aches with shame. She feels her belly expanding more every day, and she hates it. She ran for Susannah, so she wouldn't end up like her, and it all happened anyway. A white master is a white master, whether he wears gray or blue, and she was stupid to ever think otherwise.

Some nights, she wishes Susannah could see her now, what she was reduced to all because she told her to run. She wants to blame her, wants to scream in her face that she was wrong about it all. But then she hears her mother's voice buzzing in her ear, and she knows that she was warned about Susannah all along. She just didn't listen.

_"You can't never trust a woman like that."_

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you see any issues with this story, since it does deal with incredibly dark topics and I am by no means experienced in these things.


End file.
